Hunter

fore part of 1812. On Aug. 4 of that year, to
negotiate and trade with the Russian-American
Company, Hunt sailed in the Beaver for New
Archangel, Alaska, where he delivered his cargo
of goods to A. A. Baranov [q.vJ\, receiving in
return a load of sealskins. From New Archangel
the Beaver sailed for Canton by way of the Sand-
wich Islands, where Hunt left the ship. Learn-
ing of the declaration of war with Great Brit-
ain he chartered the Albatross and returned to
Astoria, more than a year after his departure,
to find that his partners had already arranged
to sell the post to the North West Company.
Though protesting against the act, he did not
remain to oppose its consummation, but again
sailed for the Sandwich Islands, not returning
until nearly two months after the capture of the
fort by a British gunboat On Apr. 3, 1814, he
left the Columbia for the last time.

He returned to St. Louis, resumed business,
and became prosperous. About 1819, aided by
Astor, he bought a large tract of land eight miles
southwest of the city, where he established a
farm and erected a gristmill. In the spring of
1820 he was an unsuccessful candidate for dele-
gate to the constitutional convention. In Sep-
tember 1822 he was appointed postmaster of St.
Louis, a place he retained for eighteen years. He
was married, Apr. 20, 1836, to Anne (Lucas)
Hunt, widow of his cousin Theodore. Though
a leading citizen of St. Louis and held in high
esteem by those who knew him, he was not popu-
lar, and his defeat in the election of 1820, when
his party won a signal victory, was humiliating.
His conduct of his own business appears in
strong contrast with his management of the As-
toria enterprise. Chittenden, who says he was
not the man for the place, credits him with loyal-
ty to his chief, but with "not much else." On the
journey he made a series of irreparable blunders,
and as chief factor of the trading post he seems
to have played directly into the hands of Aster's
enemies.

[T. B. Wyman, GeneaL of the Name and Family of
Hunt (1862-63) ; F. L. Billon, Annals of St. Louis in
Its Territorial Days (1888) ; H. M. Chittenden, The
Am. Fur Trade of the Far West (1902) ; Washington
Irving, Astoria (1836) ; Grace Flandrau, Aster and the
Ore. Country (pamphlet, n.<L, 1926?); K. W. Porter,
John Jacob Astor, Business Man (193 r).] W. J, G.

HUNTER, ANDREW (i75i-Feb. 24, 1823),
Presbyterian clergyman, chaplain in both army
and navy, was born in York County, Pa., the son
of David and Martha Hunter, David and his
brother Andrew, a Presbyterian minister, of
Scotch-Irish ancestry, had emigrated from Ire-
land some time prior to 1750. Andrew settled in
New Jersey and for upward of thirty years was

Hunter

pastor of the church in Greenwich (Pennsylvania,
Journal, Aug. 2, 1775). He adopted his nephew
and namesake, who grew up in New Jersey wi-
der his care. In 1770 Andrew entered the Col-
lege of New Jersey, according to Philip Vickers
Fithian, who notes in his diary that "Mr. Hunter
and myself were admitted into the junior-Class
on the twenty second day of November, after a
previous Examination by the president, Tutors,
& some residing Graduates" (Journal and Let-
ters, p. 7). After his graduation in 1772, he
studied theology with his uncle, and was licensed
to preach, June 1774, by the Presbytery of Phila-
delphia. He then made a missionary visitation
to Virginia. An ardent patriot, with Fithian
and some forty other young men, disguised as
Indians, he assisted, Nov. 22, 1774, in burning
a cargo of tea that had been stored in Greenwich,
on Cohansey Creek, N. J. On Oct. 2, 1775, he
was married to Nancy Riddle (Pennsylvania
Gazette, Oct. 4,1775). It is said that he accom-
panied Gen. Montgomery's expedition to Quebec
(Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical So-
ciety, 3 ser., VI, 2). At all events, the following
year, 1776, he was commissioned by the Pro-
vincial Congress of New Jersey chaplain of Col.
Philip Van Cortland's battalion, Heard's brigade.
Serving with various organizations until the
dose of the war, he had a distinguished record,
and received the personal thanks of Washington
for his conduct at the battle of Monmouth.

Following the war, he seems to have been in-
active for a period, but in 1786 he took charge of
the Presbyterian churches of Woodbury and
Blackwood, N. J., and continued in this relation-
ship until 1797. At least twice during this peri-
od, 1789 and 1794, he was a delegate to the Gen-
eral Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, His
interest in education was keen and he had ability
as a teacher. The College of New Jersey elected
him trustee in 1788, and in 1791 Joseph Bloom-
field [#.#.] deeded to him and others a plot of
land in Woodbury for the site of an academy. A
building was erected and he served as principal
of the institution until 1797, when, on account of
his health, he retired to a farm on the banks of
the Delaware near Trenton. In 1804 he became
professor of mathematics and astronomy in the
College of New Jersey, He relinquished this po-
sition 5n 1808 to take charge of an academy at
Bordentown, N. J., where he remained till 1810.
He had resigned as trustee of the College of
New Jersey upon becoming professor there, bt#
served again from 1808 to i8n, in which year
he was appointed chaplain in the navy, and sta-
tioned at the Washington Navy Yard. His ap-
pointment seems to hare been due to the fact

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